🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 20
It was only natural to wonder. After all, the stew sold at this shop was something truly special.
It wasn’t something just anyone could make.
In the past, quite a few places had tried to copy this shop and opened their own stew restaurants, but within a few months they all failed and shut down.
Even Mark had struggled for years to learn how to bring out this flavor, hadn’t he?
Jay, seeing Skal’s puzzled expression, answered him word by word, his voice filled with a strange pride.
“Our young lady is the one making it.”
“Young lady?”
Just as Jay had said, the one currently in charge of the kitchen was none other than Seres herself.
‘Why close the shop?’
‘Huh? Because Mr. Mark is in no condition to make stew…’
‘Don’t we just need someone who can make stew?’
‘Well, yes, but…’
‘We have one, so don’t worry.’
‘You mean there’s someone besides Mark who can cook? Who?’
‘Me.’
‘…Whaaat?’
Jay, too, had been left speechless with his jaw hanging open when Seres first said she would be the one to cook.
Had he really heard that right?
Instead of finding another chef, Lady Seres herself would be cooking?
“Lady Seres, we need one more bowl.”
Even as he followed her to the dining hall to help, Jay felt uneasy.
This was a restaurant with a long tradition—what if all the customers were disappointed and left?
“Over here, another bowl for us too.”
“Yes!”
But as if mocking Jay’s worries, none of the customers voiced a single complaint about the stew Seres made.
On the contrary, many said it tasted even better than usual and kept ordering extra.
“Stew’s ready.”
Surprisingly, Seres looked perfectly natural in an apron, ladle in hand.
As she deftly filled a bowl with stew, Jay quickly carried it out of the kitchen.
“Is that all of it then?”
After finishing the extra orders, Seres finally had a moment to spare. She peered outside the kitchen, checking the faces of the customers eating her stew, then gave a small nod.
‘It is strange.’
Her expression turned peculiar as she looked at the stew bubbling gently over a low flame.
When she had first visited the shop and saw customers enjoying the stew, she had been honestly startled.
‘Because it was a very familiar smell.’
When she tasted it, she was certain.
‘This is my stew, isn’t it?’
Back in the days when she had worked as Grace.
Among the patients who came to her were many who needed long-term treatment. For that reason, there were quite a few who lived in lodgings provided for extended care.
The stew she had served those long-term patients—
Nutritious enough to restore their strength, with no side effects, and tasty at the same time.
She had racked her brains to create just the right recipe, and this was it.
And yet, the shop was selling stew made from that very recipe.
She didn’t know how it had come to be, but fortunately, it meant she could cover for Mark’s absence.
‘I even added back the one missing ingredient.’
There was only one difference from her original recipe.
She had always included seasonal herbs—different each time depending on what was available—whereas the shop’s stew had none.
But adding those herbs not only improved the flavor significantly, it also made it much healthier.
Clink.
At that moment, the shop door opened and someone walked in.
Thinking it was a new customer, Seres peeked out from the kitchen and clicked her tongue lightly.
“Lady Yulia.”
For it was Yulia, who had, as usual, come to the shop again today.
Even as Jay called her, the girl’s eyes darted around the shop until they landed on one spot.
“Sis!”
Catching sight of Seres peeking out from the kitchen, Yulia came running as fast as her little legs would carry her.
“Ah—ah!”
But she tripped over her own feet, stumbled, and went sprawling forward.
Thud! The sound of her fall echoed loudly through the shop.
Whoosh!
“Are you hurt?”
A hand reached out instantly to lift the child up—it was Seres.
The girl quickly wiped at her eyes, then pointed to her knee.
“Here.”
“……”
Fortunately, she wasn’t badly hurt.
Seeing the slightly reddened knee, Seres let out a short sigh and scolded her.
“Didn’t I tell you not to come here?”
“You did.”
“And yet?”
“I wanted to see you.”
“……”
With those wide, earnest eyes staring up at her, what more could she say?
“Let’s go sit over there.”
Nod.
Holding Seres’s hand, Yulia headed to a corner seat. Watching them, Colin the butler smiled quietly.
He was the one who had brought Yulia from the Academy, filling in for Jay who was busy helping in the dining hall.
‘She’s still soft when it comes to Lady Yulia.’
The moment Seres saw her little sister fall, she had rushed out of the kitchen before he could even react.
Ever since losing her memory, Seres had been decisive and sharp, her actions firm and uncompromising. It was amazing how much her personality seemed to have changed.
And yet, her affection for her little sister clearly remained the same.
Even when scolding her, a bit of Yulia’s innocent charm was enough to melt her resolve.
“…Did you see that?”
“See what?”
Meanwhile, another pair of eyes was fixed firmly on Seres as she guided Yulia to a seat.
“You really didn’t see it?”
“All I see right now is the bleak future of being bled dry by the other guild leaders.”
Deputy Guildmaster Rot’s whining went in one ear and out the other as Skal stared intently at Seres.
The way she had dashed out and lifted the child was anything but ordinary.
Her movements—swift, precise, with no wasted motion whatsoever.
“Hey.”
“Yes, customer?”
Jay hurried over again at Skal’s call.
“Do you need anything else?”
Another bowl, maybe…?
Though smiling, Jay was secretly nervous.
“Is she the new head cook?”
Following Skal’s gaze, Jay saw he was looking at Seres, and shook his head lightly.
“She’s not the cook. She’s the owner.”
“…The owner?”
The one who had put up the new management notice?
He’d heard it was a woman, but this young?
Skal’s eyes were full of astonishment as he looked at Seres.
“How’s your body?”
“Much better, thanks to you, my lady.”
Mark forced a bright smile. His right arm was in a splint wrapped thick with bandages, and his face was covered in cuts and bruises.
“The medicine you gave me worked wonders.”
Taking the remedy Seres had personally prepared—both to drink and to apply—had eased the pain, reduced the swelling, and made the bruises fade faster in just a few days.
“That’s good. I’m glad.”
If she had used her power to turn back time, he could have been healed instantly. But she couldn’t reveal that, so she had only prescribed medicine.
“I’m sorry. I really didn’t want to cause any trouble for the shop.”
“Take this chance to rest properly.”
She had heard that ever since her parents’ passing, Mark had never once closed the shop, not even for a day—and always worked alone, too.
So maybe resting for once wasn’t such a bad thing.
“Anyway.”
“Yes?”
“Who did this to you?”
“…Huh?”
At Seres’s sudden question, Mark’s eyes trembled like an earthquake.
“I—I told you, I fell down the stairs…”
“I don’t like asking twice.”
Seres clicked her tongue softly.
She had worked as a healer long enough to know the difference between injuries from falling down stairs and injuries from being beaten.
The broken bone, the bruises—none of it matched what a fall could cause.
“Who was it?”
“……”
Mark couldn’t bring himself to answer.
Looking at her nervously, he finally hung his head.
For a long while he said nothing. But Seres didn’t press him.
Still, she had no intention of letting it slide.
She had to find out the cause and resolve it, if only to make sure it never happened again.
“…I’m sorry.”
Mark’s voice shook as he bowed his head lower.
“I tried to endure it on my own, but…”
At last, he began to explain everything that had happened.
“It’s the place where Lady Seres borrowed money from…”
“…Borrowed money?”
Seres immediately guessed the situation. She had already suspected something strange.
Loan sharks.
If he had gone into debt, and they were bleeding him for interest with the house and land as collateral, why were they leaving the shop untouched?
